This image is protected by copyright law. Please contact us for advice on our licensing terms, before reproducing it for commercial purposes.

To save a small version of this image for mock-up or research purposes, right click (or control click on Macintosh) and Save Picture As...

Shaped potato crisps, 1998.

Legend has it that the potato crisp was ‘invented’ in 1853 in the United States by a restaurant chef called George Crum. The railway magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt was eating at the restaurant where Crum worked. Vanderbilt, a notoriously fastidious customer, repeatedly sent his potato chips back to the kitchen, complaining that they were cut too thickly. The exasperated Crum eventually cut the potato into wafer-thin slices, frying them in oil until they were crispy. Vanderbilt enjoyed them, and the crisp was born. Crisps did not appear in Britain until the 1910s, and were not manufactured on any scale until Frank Smith started to make them in a London garage in 1920. Today they are Britain’s most popular snack, available in a huge variety of shapes, textures and flavours.

Search for related items:To search for related items, choose from the following related keywords. To search multiple keywords, select multiple checkboxes and click Search Selected. To search for a single keyword, click the keyword itself.

When you email your lightbox as dynamic, the email message will include a URL link to your lightbox. If you add or delete items in the lightbox, the viewer will see the changed lightbox.

When you email your lightbox as static, the email message will include a URL link containing a list of images that are currently in your lightbox. If you add or delete items in the lightbox, the viewer will not see the changes.